I get bored easily. I read several books at a time, I change
furniture around, I flip around TV channels, and I grow weary of the same kinds
of workouts. I have seen the same women walk around the block at 6 AM every day
for the past five years. Rain, sleet, snow, they are like clockwork. I, on the
other hand, have belonged to 6 gyms. Sometimes I switch because there isn’t
enough variety for me as when I belonged to one of those places in the strip
malls. I felt like a hamster on a wheel walking on a treadmill. The worst was a
huge, national chain which boasts 24 hour availability and row upon row of
treadmills, stair climbers, elliptical machines and stationary or recumbent
bikes. There’s something dystopian about hundreds of people wearing heart rate
monitors and headphones staring at reality TV while plodding, pedaling, and
plunging. I must make an exception with the gym I belonged to with individual
TV screens on the aerobic machines. I kind of liked watching those shows while
I worked out – until I took my eyes off the screen and saw the same glazed over
eyes and disconnected attention.
One of the things I enjoy about working out is taking my
mind off of my job, my to-do list, and my cares and concerns. I do this best
when I am fully engaged in the workout. This means the TV is off. I also like
to mix things up. I don’t cross-train because I feel a need to work other
muscles even though I know this is important. I cross train because I get bored
with the same thing, so when I began this fitness program, I knew I’d have to
mix things up, so I decided to do, what I call, a Suburban Triathlon.
Within an hour, I walk, bike, and run in the pool. I gave it
my first go after my blister ordeal. I wanted to get an hour’s worth of
workout, but I didn’t want to aggravate my blisters. Normally, when I do a
short walk around the block, I bring my dogs. They are little and suffer from
various joint pains, so I don’t take them on long walks. Also my schnauzer
insists on frequent marking which slows things down. I put on my proper walking
shoes and headed out. I went around in a little less than 20 minutes; it’s a
much lighter task without the dogs pulling, twisting and tripping me up. I must have been looking like I got a workout
because when I came in to get a drink, my daughter, Leona, immediately ran to
get some water for me.
Next phase the bike. I thought I was helping myself by
setting it out on the driveway readying it for me, but I forgot that my saddle
is black and the sun was out. Ouch. It was kind of weird getting on the bike
with fatigued legs. I needed to push harder at first, but something that I am
learning about biking is that those times when I can coast are sweet. I also
like the breeze. I pedaled around and about bringing my total workout time to
40 minutes.
The last set was in the pool. When I workout in the pool, I
do a couple of things. It is an above-ground, round pool. I can’t exactly do
laps, but I can run in circles creating a whirlpool. It’s fun to do this with a
large group of people and then the effect is almost like a lazy river where
people can get carried around and around, kind of like a large, flushing,
toilet bowl. Anyway, after creating the whirlpool in one direction, I switch
directions and force myself and the water to move in the opposite way. It kind
of feels like walking in a strong wind or climbing a mountain, and It really
intensifies the workout. Another thing I do is jump about. When the kids were
small, they loved it when I did “froggie jumps” or “washing machine” because I
made big waves. Again, my heart rate is up and I can do things in the pool that
I definitely can’t do on land. Well, after 40 minutes of workout, I had little
to give to this endeavor and, as you might imagine, running around in circles
can get monotonous. I did what I thought was 20 minutes (I didn’t have a timer
with me) Surely it must have been 20 minutes, but when I toweled off, I found
out that it was only 10. I called that good enough with a promise to add 10 minutes
later (I’m not sure if I actually did or not).
Today I did another Sub-Tri. At Patrick’s suggestion, I
broke the workout into 25/25/10. This was much easier to handle and I feel like
this is fun, interesting, and do-able.
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